‘We Thought We Just Had the Flu’— Minnesota Mother’s Heartbreaking Warning After Losing Her Two Young Sons

Minnesota Mom Who Lost Two Sons Shares the Hardest Lesson of Her Life

When Minnesotan Cheryl Burt bought a toy truck for her son, she never imagined that choice would cost her everything. “I still have the toy truck, but my sons are gone." That single sentence carries nearly three decades of grief.

In January 1996, Cheryl’s 15-month-old Zachary and 4-year-old Nicholas died in their family’s home in the small town of Kimball, 20 miles south of St. Cloud. Cheryl, her husband Todd, their 5-year-old son Ryan, and even the family’s 100-pound black lab are lucky to have survived.

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“We Thought We Just Had the Flu”

For weeks before that night, Cheryl says she and her children felt sick but couldn’t figure out why. “You feel like you have the flu,” she said. “You say, ‘Oh God, I feel like crap. I’ve got a headache. I’m achy all over. I’m sleepy. I want to go to sleep.’ But that’s the worst thing you can do.”

They didn’t know their furnace was leaking carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas often referred to as “the invisible killer.” It was a cold winter in their new home. “We had a furnace on. We burned a fire in our downstairs fireplace for the first time. This was an old home that was new to us… We had a wood-burning stove in the kitchen area that we supplemented for heat as well. But it was the first time we had a fire. We caused a downdraft into our home,” she explained. “That happens frequently. Don't be alarmed. Everybody has downdrafts. If you have a working furnace, your downdraft is not going to kill you, and you have fresh air intakes.”

That combination of their heating sources caused deadly levels of carbon monoxide to fill the house, but they didn't have any CO detectors to alert them.

A Normal Night That Wasn’t

On one of the coldest nights of the year, Cheryl went through what felt like an ordinary evening with her kids. Her baby, Zachary, wanted his bottle and then wanted to go to bed early. “By that point, my headache, I felt like I had a hole in my head. I’m not kidding you. It was fire in my whole head,” she said.

The boys begged for their usual bedtime stories, but Cheryl told them no. “Mommy doesn’t feel good,” she recalled, admitting she was short with them that night. It’s a moment she says she’ll regret for the rest of her life.

Her husband went to bed early, too after taking NyQuil, something Cheryl now knows made things worse. “He said, ‘I’m getting whatever you guys have had. I don’t feel good at all.’”

As she tried to stay awake to watch a TV show, Cheryl went outside several times to smoke. “It was 30 below and windy,” she said. “I’d open the door just a crack so I could hear the kids.” That little bit of fresh air was probably the only thing keeping her alive.

She eventually went to bed around 10 p.m. Cheryl remembers hearing Zachary wake up a couple of times during the night. “I would go and I’d rock him till he fell back asleep, I’d lay him back in his crib and make my way downstairs.” She did that a couple of times, but every time she went up the stairs, it got harder. She remembers being dizzy and very cold.

By 4:30 a.m., Cheryl was barely functioning. She checked on Zachary again, and he was breathing funny. But she was poisoned too and couldn’t think straight.

“I'm poisoned and I'm hanging onto a crib and I can barely register the fact that he's breathing really oddly,” Cheryl said. “Had I not been poisoned, my god, my alarm bells would have been ringing long, long, long before that.” Cheryl then walks away, trying to get back downstairs.

She passed out on the floor between the bathroom and bedroom.

“The Boys Are Gone”

Hours later, Cheryl’s husband's work had been calling because he was late and that never happened. “They just knew something was not right, Cheryl said. “My sisters, my mom, and dad, everyone had been calling us all morning wanting to know if we were feeling any better.”

Later, around 12:30 or 1:00 in the afternoon, Todd woke up disoriented and collapsed several times before finally getting to the phone. His coworker could tell something was terribly wrong and called 911.

When rescuers finally reached the house, it was too late for Zachary and Nicholas. Todd found the baby first, then he checked on Nick. Then Ryan. When he touched Ryan’s feet, Ryan said, ‘Ouch.’ That’s how we knew he was still alive.”

Todd woke Cheryl. “He said, ‘The boys are gone,’” she remembered. “And the only thing that went through my head was, ‘Oh no, they’re outside without their jackets on.’ My body couldn’t move.” She was curled up on the floor next to the dog. “I'm just lying there, and Todd says, "They're dead, Cheryl."

SEE ALSO: Minnesota Official Recalls Dying Explosion Victim’s Final Moments

That’s when adrenaline took over. “If you’ve ever heard of superhuman strength, that was it,” she said. Cheryl couldn’t walk so she crawled up the stairs. “I made it into the baby’s room, Zach’s room,” she said. “I lifted Zachary’s shoulder to turn him over and he was just hard as a rock. I thought he was still sleeping.”

She moved to Nicholas’s bed. “I said, ‘Come on, Nikki, wake up.” He didn’t move. Cheryl says she didn’t know what was happening, and she was hurting so bad she just wanted to die.

Then she heard Ryan’s faint voice, “He told me, ‘Can’t move.’ I said, ‘You have to get up, Ryan.’ He said, ‘I can’t.’ Cheryl says she pulled him off the bed and dragged him into the living room where the sun was shining through the window.

“Had We Plugged It In, My Whole Life Would Be Different”

Cheryl’s next memory is watching two men from the coroner’s office came out with tears streaming down their faces. “They each shook their head at each other like, ‘Nope, there's nothing.’ I still didn't know my kids were dead,” Cheryl remembers.

Emergency crews rushed Cheryl, Todd, and Ryan to Hennepin County for hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Ryan barely survived after multiple dives.

When she was finally told her boys were gone, the reality hit like a second blow. “People have to know about this,” she said. “Because I am the average mom. I followed all the safety rules. My kids had bike helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, car seats. I did all the safety stuff. And yet my children still died of something I was powerless to stop. But I wasn’t”

A few weeks before the tragedy, Cheryl had stood in a Walmart aisle staring at a $24.95 carbon monoxide detector. Cheryl’s friend had told her she was buying some as a gift for family. Cheryl thought that was such a good idea. She looked at them, and said “I can’t, I have to go buy that toy truck. I will get one later.”

Holding up a carbon monoxide alarm, Cheryl said, “Had we plugged this in, my whole entire life would be so different.”

Turning Pain Into Purpose

Today, Cheryl is using her voice to make sure no other parent makes the same mistake. Her advocacy helped create the Nicholas and Zachary Burt Memorial Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act of 2021, which is funding a new statewide safety campaign led by Minnesota’s State Fire Marshal Division.

Fire departments in Austin, Bemidji, Brainerd, Duluth, Red Wing, Rochester, Virginia, and Willmar are distributing 2,500 free CO alarms to families most at risk and installing them for free.

“CO gives no warning,” said State Fire Marshal Dan Krier. “The only way to know you’re being poisoned before it’s too late is with a CO alarm.”

Cheryl couldn’t agree more. “I don’t want anyone to experience the pain of carbon monoxide,” she said. “The pain of losing loved ones. The pain of having to live your life begging people to please put something simple into your home.”

As winter approaches, Cheryl’s message is simple: check your alarms, replace old ones, and don’t wait. “If you don’t have one, get one today,” she said. “If you know someone who doesn’t have one, get them one.”

READ MORE: Minnesota Woman Shares How a Simple Date Night Turned Into a Terrifying Moment She’ll Never Forget